The South African Civil Society Information Service

Americans Remarkably Detached from Wars being Fought In their Names

3 Nov 2010

Anastasia Churkina of Russia Today interviews Tom Engelhardt, author of the book American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's about the extent of America's military presence throughout the world.

Engelhardt is also founder of the blog TomDispatch, which tries to make sense of the post 9/11 world and is described as "a regular antidote to the mainstream media."

According to Engelhardt, the United States of America (US) has more or less set up bases of varying sizes all over the world.

And, while the Pentagon usually admits to about 800 bases annually, their count does not include bases in war zones. TomDispatch.com has found upwards of 400 bases in Afghanistan, a known war zone.

There are also some 13,000 operatives from the Special Operations Forces, described as a kind of “secret military” that has taken over CIA type activities. They are currently stationed outside the US in 75 of the world’s 192 countries. This accounts for about 40% of the world.

"Its an imperial presence of a kind that I don't think we've ever seen in history," contends Engelhardt, while noting that Americans are remarkably detached from the wars that are being fought in their names.

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